That's the Newport Beach resident's job as the new host of Spike TV's "Best of Pride."

Just three years ago, Perez was working at a smoothie shop in the mall and attending Orange Coast College, but now she is introducing Japan's Pride Fighting Championships to a whole new audience in the U.S.

Perez has never been in a fight in her life and she has never trained in the martial arts, but she said she is looking into getting started at one of the many gyms in Orange County.

"I'm too little (to fight)," Perez said with a wink and a smile. "I've probably started fights. I may have been the cause of some fights, but I've never been in a fight."

The Latina was born in Laguna Beach, raised in old-town Orange and currently resides in Newport Beach.

"I'm an Orange County girl, a beach girl," Perez said.

Perez graduated high school from Orangewood Academy in Garden Grove.

"It's a real small private school," Perez said. "I had like 10 people in my class. I came from a really, really small private school.

"We had sports teams, but we didn't have all of them. You know, we did what we could, I guess. We had football, but it was like tag football or flag football. I pretty much played volleyball. That was my sport and I did the stats for the basketball team. I've always been involved in sports. I like watching and I like playing sports."

One of Perez's friends said she should enter Maxim magazine's Hometown Hotties competition, so she decided on a whim to take a shot.

"It's pretty much girls who have no modeling experience that are just kind of going to school, working full-time and doing what they are doing," Perez said. "Somebody suggested to me, 'Oh, there's this contest. Why don't you submit your pictures?' It's pretty much to get your picture in the magazine. I was like, 'What the heck, I'll do it.' You also had to submit a little video that shows your personality."

The 26-year-old made the Final Four out of thousands of entrants in the Hometown Hotties contest in 2007. One minute she's was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life like any normal woman in her 20s and the next she's being featured in a big pictorial in Maxim. The photo shoot was done at an alligator ranch in New Orleans.

"That was my first trip away from home by myself," Perez said of her trip to The Big Easy. "All of the rest of the girls in the photo shoot and the rest of the contest were like school teachers and students and waitresses and just kind of every background."

Perez started picking up hosting gigs for Maxim parties and she also got promotional jobs. And then the UFC came knocking at her door.

"Wow, that's big," Perez said.

Zuffa, which owns the UFC, purchased Pride Fighting Championships in 2007. Pride, which was based in Japan, held more than 60 events from 1997-2007. The cards would routinely draw 50,000-70,000 people and they were over-the-top spectacles with fireworks and elaborate ring entrances. Zuffa was unable to keep Pride going, but it absorbed many of the top names into the UFC.

With the purchase of Pride, Zuffa also picked up Pride's vast video library which features many of MMA's all-time greats. While Pride was wildly popular in Japan and had a hardcore underground following in the U.S., it never reached the same kind of popularity as the UFC in the U.S. Zuffa decided to put together 26 one-hour shows for Season 1 of "The Best of Pride" on Spike TV.

And Perez got the job as host of the show.

Producer Dennis Kirkpatrick was impressed with Perez's natural ability in front of the camera and behind the microphone.

"She keeps up with the sport and knows her stuff," Kirkpatrick said.

Perez now she is exposing Pride to the casual MMA fans who might have only followed the UFC in the past.

"They are crazy," Perez said of the hardcore Pride fans. "When we were filming it, I was getting to know everything about it. But now that it's airing and I'm on Twitter and Facebook and all that stuff and they are contacting me and all the blogs, it's crazy. They are die-hard fans. It's pretty cool to talk to them and see the differences they like about UFC and Pride."

Perez had been a fan of the UFC for a long time and her father holds a black belt in karate, but she had little knowledge of Pride before taking the hosting job. That changed quickly.

"Literally, when I got the job, they sent me home with a truckload of DVDs," Perez said. "I watched all these fights. It's hard to pick a favorite fight because there were some awesome fights."

Perez said she was going to fights before she started working for the UFC, but there are some major perks being the host of "The Best of Pride," which airs Wednesday nights at 11 following "The Ultimate Fighter."

"Now I get the best seats in the house," said Perez, who will host the Pride booth at the UFC Fan Expo from May 27-28 in Las Vegas.

OK, so who is Perez's favorite Pride fighter of all-time?

"I would have to say Wanderlei Silva, and I've gotten the chance to meet him," Perez said. "He's so scary watching his fights, and so intimidating, but he's actually a really nice down-to-earth guy. Even though we have completely different careers he had a lot of positive things and advice to give me. There was a language barrier because he has a really strong accent, but I'm going to have to say him."

Related Links

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.